Executive Order 13959 is a

U.S. Presidential The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United St ...

Executive Order signed on November 12, 2020, by President Donald Trump. Its title, and stated goal, is "Addressing the Threat From Securities Investments That Finance Communist Chinese Military Companies." It is essentially no longer in force since its first five paragraphs, the key substantive provisions, were superseded by

Executive Order 14032 Executive Order 14032, titled Addressing the Threat From Securities Investments That Finance Certain Companies of the People's Republic of China, was an executive order signed by United States President Joe Biden on June 3, 2021. The order came ...

("Addressing the Threat From Securities Investments That Finance Certain Companies of the People's Republic of China"), signed by President Biden on June 3, 2021. The national emergency declared by E.O. 13959 remains in effect, however, and was expanded by E.O. 14032.

Prohibiting investment in "Communist Chinese military companies"

The executive order prohibits all U.S. investors ( institutional and retail investors alike) from purchasing or investing in securities of companies identified by the U.S. government as "Communist Chinese military companies". A "Communist Chinese military company" is any company that the U.S. Department of Defense has identified pursuant to Section 1237 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999. The prohibition came into effect on January 11, 2021. On December 28, 2020, guidance on the executive order was published clarifying that the order included subsidiaries of the relevant companies. On January 13, 2021, President Trump strengthened the executive order's requirements by issuing Executive Order 13974 ("Amending Executive Order 13959—Addressing the Threat From Securities Investments That Finance Communist Chinese Military Companies"), which mandated

divestment In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...

by November 11, 2021.

List of affected companies

Initially, 31 companies were identified, including two companies whose

shares In financial markets, a share is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation, and can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Share capital refers to all of the shares of an ...

were traded on U.S. exchanges. These include companies in aerospace, shipbuilding,

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

, technology and

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqu ...

industries. On December 3, 2020, the Department of Defense designated four additional companies as owned or controlled by the Chinese military, taking the total number of affected companies to 35. On January 14, 2021, the Department of Defense designated nine additional companies as owned or controlled by the Chinese military, taking the total number of affected companies to 44.

Delistings

As a consequence of the executive order, the New York Stock Exchange in January ended trading of shares in China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, and announced in late February that trading in CNOOC would also cease on March 9, 2021.

References

{{reflist Executive orders of Donald Trump China–United States relations United States sanctions Sanctions against China Geopolitical rivalry

Prohibiting investment in "Communist Chinese military companies"

List of affected companies

Delistings

See also

References